Well, hello and welcome. Did unforeseen circumstances, we did not record an
original pod tonight, and it has nothing to do with the Bills losing in
overtime to the Philadelphia Eagles. I don't know about you, but it's frustrating.
I was so angry at the end of that game. I wanted to
say the Bills were the better team. They certainly seemed to dominate, but
the better team won. I have never seen a team beat themselves more than
the Buffalo Bills beat themselves. And we can all say the non horse collar
call that was an intentional grounding call. Okay, that's one. That's one.
The Bills beat themselves in this one, and it just rips your heart
out, just absolutely rips your heart out. But I think we have a
pod that you're going to really enjoy today. Usually we spend some time with
Greg Connors, especially on an away game, kind of recapping the game and
all that. So I thought we would kick off this episode that will include
Armin Shawbrook, Dan Vinton who was on the Miracle on the Hudson plane,
and my brother the most interesting Moran kind of giving me life things and little
slices of life that I think you're really going to enjoy. We had an
episode and you can go listen to the whole thing episode one ninety three with
Greg Connor's called Greg Connor's Keys to Success. And the one thing that Greg
has that I think is often underestimated in a lot of people, but most
successful people have this. They may not be the most talented, they may
not be the most athletic, but they have this and that is drive.
And I asked Greg, where does that come from for him? Failure,
failure, fear of failure, fear failure. Yeah, yeah, I I've
you know, I've never been the tallest, I've never been the most athletic.
I've never been the smartest. And so for me, it was all
about preparation. It was always about in order for me to succeed on the
football field, I need to be stronger than everybody else. So I worked,
I lifted more, I ran more, and academically I was never the
smartest. You know, my older brother had like a genius IQ. He
can remember anything. He didn't apply himself. He didn't study, He just
remember things and he didn't care well. I had to study because if I
didn't, I had some core based intelligence but everything I had to do,
I had to earn. And so when I was in law school, I
went from lifting and doing sports, you know, eight to ten hours a
day to just reading and writing eight to twelve hours a day, and it
was as about preparation. The one person that I can think of that had
success as who grew up around success professionally, who then had that drive and
even more is Kobe Bryant. Yes. Yeah, that's a great point because
his dad was played basketball. Dad was a professional athlete, and then Kobe
was a professional athlete. And when you look at and I didn't and surpassed
his dad because his dad, I thought played more international. Yeah, right,
didn't. I don't know that he did he play in the NBA.
I don't think so. I think he might have gotten a sniff early.
But then so when you look at when you look at and I was not
a huge Kobe Bryant fan when when he was playing basketball, because I didn't,
you know, social media wasn't around. You didn't get to see all
these clips about him and all these things he did, and when he was
playing, well, the only thing I remember he's playing was his incident,
right, sure? Yeah, because you were you heard that stuff because it
made headline news. And Kobe was also I think seeing his standoffish, seeing
as and instead of focused, and I think like the Dream Team, the
Second Dream Team or Dream Team too or whatever they did, it was him
that changed the whole thinking of the guys because I thought it was like Lebron
and stuff. They were just coming in right from a night out in Europe
and then here comes Kobe and they're like, where are you going? He
goes, I'm going to the gym. And as they were coming in,
he was going is going to work out like four or five in the morning.
Yeah, And that sort of trickled down was like, oh shit,
I should do that and it is once in a while. And there was
no like, hey man, you guys are out partying. No, nothing
said. Just that example and that drive to win. And I can tell
you of all the people I know that have met professional success, whether it's
sports, whether it's business, whatever it is, they all have one thing
in common is their work ethic. You know, a good friend of mine,
here's a business mentor and investing mentor, mind Rick abb I don't know
anybody that works harder than him. I mean, he's He's had a forty
plus year business career and he still works twelve fourteen hours a day. Now,
if you want to talk about work life balance, I can't say that
people that are successful have a good work life ban It's so funny. On
I have several questions that I was going to ask you, so I just
jotted down notes because I wanted it to be a free form conversation, and
I did write down is there such a thing as work life balance? Because
I don't know that there is if And yet I think you do a very
good job, Greg with from what I've seen. I really do. If
you ask my if you ask my former wife, she would say, that's
probably my biggest struggle work life and mine too. Always mine it, you
know, for me in terms of prioritizing is you know it's always family for
me, Yes, But when I say that, it's you know, work
is what drives me. Work is where I and that's one of the things
I enjoy because I can see results. I can, I can see impact,
I can, I can give back, I can. You know,
it's a it's a rush, It's an adrenaline rush for me. The competitiveness
Now, when the kids had sports, the kids had games, the kids
had stuff at school. I would always carve that stuff out, but then
I was right back to work. So I would coach, you know,
I would. I would. They'd have games at six at night or practice,
and I would coach every sport. Anything I could get involved with the
kids, I did it. So it'd be practice, and sometimes I coached
Will's basketball team and Luke's basketball team. I'd have practice from six to nine
at night. Well, we get home at from Will's practice at nine o'clock
at night, he'd go to bed. I'd be right back at the computer.
I'd be working till twelve one o'clock in the morning. And so the
balance of some of the other relationship side of things for me is I think
those suffered. I don't think I probably spent the time that others in society
do on some of those parts of it, you know, even like with
my mom or my sister and my brothers. I probably when we're together we
spend the time. But it wasn't as always deliberate early in my career as
it probably should have been, or that others who don't necessarily have that goal
or drive in terms of their business or their profession to commit to it,
but you have to The separation for anybody in the professional goals you have is
what are you willing to put in? There's a sacrifice. Anybody that owns
a private plane, anybody that has that high level professional success. I can
tell you that there's a there is a sacrifice and a trade off for it.
And sometimes it's sometimes it's you know, the work life balance isn't there,
and you overcompensate by doing some of those things. And sometimes it's it's
a sense of loneliness because you don't have people that you can trust that are
around you because you haven't invested in the relationships to trust people. Yeah,
I know that. Even for myself, it was always a drive to win,
right, And I knew, I'll just I guess I can just say
it in radio. You knew there were guys that were just gonna win because
they showed up. Right, Brother Wee's was always going to be a huge
personality, unique talent, really unique, That's what made him great. Had
a different way of speaking, spoke to the common man pretty well, right,
had a cool look, was different and also smart, intelligent guy.
So I knew, like when there was that shift. I'm like, I
gotta I'm not I have to work, I have to do I can't be
as good as I got to be. I got to make this significantly better
than And it was that kind of thing. And I also knew, you
know, because of the way the science behind the ratings and stuff, there
would be confusion. So I just poured all in. But I mean there
were times I would work till to go to bed, get back up at
four or five, and go to work. And I don't know that that
was a smart thing or not. I you know, and I try now,
like you know, the word is grind. You know, it would
always be a you know, grind rinch repeat grind rent, and I go,
can we change that word to I get to you know, because even
you know, I'm here last night and the studios are really late or early
this morning, and I go, but I get to do this and I
love it. Yeah, And that's okay. Well, And that's one of
the biggest differences that I learned when you know, we started the own business,
is that, you know, the one if you're going to invest in
something, invest in yourself. Yeah, And the investment in yourself will always
pay off and even if you start a business in the business fails, you
learn so much from what you're doing to either redirect or or realize, you
know what, maybe me owning a business isn't for me, and I should
focus on being a support person or doing a different thing, which then allows
you to have balance in other parts of your life that you don't necessarily have
when you're the business owner. But you know, a very wise man said
to me when I was younger, you know, when I was in my
twenties. He says, when you have an opportunity to always invest in yourself.
Yeah, well that's funny, because I would always say to even my
my sons, I would Now I'll say to them, you know, you're
going to get a career at some point, but work on yourself because if
you, no matter what it is, make yourself roughly, you know,
take those edges and smooth them out a little bit, learn things about your
personality, keep yourself in shape, eat well, work on yourself because all
that then translates to whomever you're working for or whatever you're doing. It just
makes you better and better to be around and a better employee, and you
can think clear. And I think that's like the biggest investment you can make.
And for me any the advice I would give to anybody that's in that,
you know from Luke's age sixteen, seventeen to thirty is find someone who
you trust that will be honest with you. Yeah, because everybody thinks that
they're funny. Everybody thinks that they're the life of the party, and that
they're smart, and they, you know, are a great people person and
all these things. But you know, sometimes you're offensive and you don't appreciate
it. We were just talking about somebody off the air. We know that
thinks he's hilarious and he, yes, you know, is offensive at times,
and you know, having a self awareness, but sometimes self awareness as
you grow and mature. From eighteen to twenty five and thirty, that's when
I became more self aware and Jenny helped me learn that. And being around
people and learning their personalities and how they were successful or didn't quite meet the
success that they wanted or thought they were having helped me become more appreciative of
myself and the people around me. And those lessons in my mid twenties were
priceless, absolutely priceless. What do you do when you don't feel like it.
When you don't feel like let's say, working out, or you don't
feel like taking on this whatever it is today, or you don't feel like
meeting with this perspective investment, And what do you do when you don't feel
like it? So two answers. If I have a time, if I
have if the reason I don't want to do it or can't do is because
I have a time commitment, I have someplace else I have to be or
do, then I go to whatever that commitment is. If it's if it's
a Saturday, or I have nothing on my schedule for the rest of the
day and that comes up, I do it. You do it. I
do it because to me, just doing it gets you one step close for
whatever your goal is. And for me, you know, the discipline to
do things and the drive to do it get you there. But I know
a lot of people are really smart and people who are driven. Some of
the difference between those who are ultimately successful and those that are close but not
quick there is actually taking the step to do it. Just one quick story
I was. I was at Alfred University senior year, was in political science
and business classic with a couple of my buddies. All of them were super
smart. Three nines. I was like three four. I thought I was
doing pretty well. And at the end of the senior year, they're all
like, hey, what are you doing? Where are you going next year?
You know you got a job. I'm like, I'm going to law
school. And I'm like you you we thought you're gonna be a high school
football coach. And I'm like, well, yeah, no, I'm going
to law school. And they're like, how did you get into law school?
And I said I applied yeah, And I was like, well,
how about you guys. We're like, yeah, I'm going back to Long
Island, I'm going to Philly. I'm going back to my dad's company.
I'm like, I thought you guys are going to law school, Like yeah,
no, I go why don't you go? And they go, well,
we didn't feel our applications, and I was like, oh. That
was the first time in my life I was like the difference between me and
them because they were smarter than I were than I was. They had a
much different upbringing, they had much more opportunity than I had in terms of
finances and access to people. What separated me from them at that point in
time was I did something they didn't do, and I was like, holy
shit. It's all about actually putting your mind to it and then following through.
And from that point forward, I was always like a I'm going to
say I'm gonna do something, I consciously made sure I did it. One
is because people are going to rely upon you, and then if you don't
do it, you then become you develop a pattern, or you develop a
reputation of not following through, which means you're not trustworthy, you're not honest,
you don't have that character or integrity that people say something that they do.
But it also differentiated me and I actually got things accomplished and done that
other people didn't, just merely because I took the steps to get it done.
So working out, you know, yeah, I do stuff with the
boys, and I got stuff I need to get done. I could put
it off for tomorrow, but it's like, you know, if I have
time tonight, I'm going to get it done. So you yeah, any
instead of sitting down and binging a Netflix show, Yeah, yeah, I
get it done. And I have binged in the past, and I have
felt awful about myself awful. I go what did I do. I watched
for four hours. This is the sad that I felt. I felt like,
honestly like I can't. I don't know if it's dirty or just loser,
Like I'm like, oh my god. So it was depressed. So
at this stage of my career, in my life, I've come to learn
that I should have done more of that at times with the people that I
care about. Yes, because what I've learned about myself is that in relationships,
you know, me being in the same room as my kids, I'm
okay with. I don't need to have sit at the kitchen table and talk
about philosophy of life and you know, what are your goals in life when
they're seventeen, eighteen, and twenty years old. I tried to force that
a bit at times, and I remember I didn't like that. So for
me, just being in the same room as my kids was enough. But
as in different stages of life, people want different things from you, and
sometimes you know, sitting with my mom on Sunday nights after dinner and just
talking around dessert is more meaningful for her in many regards that I took the
time to do that, which as a parent, I know now with my
kids I love. So I didn't do that as much at that at certain
times in my life where I probably should have, I would have meant more
to her and and ultimately more fulfilling for me. And so you know,
when I have the time with the boys now, I try to actually,
you know, put the phones away and we do some traveling, and that's
because it's just us and now they're locked in with me. So binging in
those things, you know, if it's with somebody and it's and you're you're
the programming itself isn't always necessarily Yes, it's the goal. It's the it's
the experience that you're sharing or the time you're sharing. Right, So,
with all that stuff and all all that you do, and and the kids
and trying to balance everything, how do you get away from it all?
Do you get away from it all? Is it? Is it possible?
Can you kind of turn it off? You know what I mean, like
kind of turn off your head? Right? So I would say yes,
yes, but my actions and my past say no, you know, it's
it's it's like I've been to Hawaii once and I went for the NFL All
Star Game. Okay, all right, right, that's that's so incredible trip.
It was a great trip, but it was based on something that you
know, was had work relatedness to it. Yes, and so you know
it's like, oh, here you're doing these great things. Let's go you
know, went on a trip to Greece and it's like, okay, hey,
let's go to Greece. Well, we went with one of our marketing
partners. So it was work related. So it's like, you know,
I like to think that I do take time off. I do take a
break, but when I'm gone, I'm thinking about it. Yeah. You
know, when you you took a trip this year to Europe with your sons
this summer, do do you do any work while there? I mean,
and I don't. I'm not even because here's my thing, Greg, I'm
going to go away this week and that's where we're taping this today and we'll
run early next week. And I'm thinking of I just mean at least two
hours a day. They don't have to be consecutive hours, or I can
sit down and go through stuff because I have to do that every day.
And there's something about that that is almost comforting. Yeah, And I don't
know why that is. It's insanity, I would say. Early in my
career I did the same thing. Yeah, and I really couldn't get away
from the office. I always had a tether, and part of it was
I felt responsible for everybody that was there, and I wanted to make sure
the little things were done. And unfortunately I have a bit of a control
personality where sometimes relying upon someone isn't quite me doing it, or did they
do it the way that I would expect or I'd want it to be done.
Our trip to Europe was interesting in that, you know, you're six
hours ahead, and so we would get up in the morning at you know,
eight o'clock and two o'clock back here in Rochester. By the time we
get done with dinner at six, it's noon. And so for me it
was we were having just interacting and having so much fun and activities together that
we wouldn't get back to the room until nine ten o'clock Europe time, which
is four o'clock here, and then I'm calling and sometimes the office was closed
and there's nobody there after five o'clock, so it was like, oh,
geez, I missed today, and then I'm on the computer check in my
email, checking the you know, what's any messages and stuff. So I
still did do that, Yeah, and it it It made me more relax
knowing that you know, there wasn't a fire or something didn't blow up that
all of a sudden I didn't. I didn't have some ability to make sure
that in my mind everything was okay. And I need to have some of
that comfort to know if things are okay for me to be able to relax.
Yeah, do you get like, do you have an opportunity to actually
sleep? Because I know there are times you're work until early in the morning,
and then do you try to I mean, is that something that let's
go back to the word sacred, But is there anything that's almost like this
has to happen? And I know working out is a daily thing for you,
it is, Yeah, So is there do you do the same thing
with sleep or is that more like me where it's like if I get it,
I get it, if I don't look like shit. Well, you
know, for me, as I have gotten more experience and older in life,
if I don't get a bare minimum amount of sleep, then my ability
to my ability to actually decision make like I want to be able to in
terms of capacity becomes impaired, meaning that I make some of the decisions I
make are are are not as good when I'm tired. If I don't get
if I don't get six hours of sleep, I get less than six hours
of sleep, which unfortunately I do a couple of times a week with everything
I have going on the next day. My decision making is always good,
which is great having partners like you know, Chris and Tomas, because they're
like, I come in to talk to me, like, whoa, you
know, let's let's this is take a different perspective on this. So but
yeah, for me, sleep is important, but it's it's it's it's not
something that I overly focus on. Here the entire conversation with Greg Connors in
episode one ninety three, call it Greg Connor's Keys to Success. When we
come back Arman Shawbrook. But first, Cobblestone on Maine. Right now,
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Don't get when you get stabbed, but get done. The Rolling Stone I'm
slip by the Sword from Hackney Diamonds. I think that could be the theme
song for the Great House of Guitars. I'm Gonna treat you rights. That's
really when Armin Shawbrook, the owner or one of the co founders, I
should say, along with his brothers of the House of Guitars do that separates
them from others? They treat your rights. In episode two oh five,
I sat down with Arman Schaubrock and had a fascinating conversation about his life and
how the Great House of Guitars have speak internationally known. You can hear the
entire conversation again in episode two oh five. But I did ask Arman,
what is that one thing that separates the Great House of Guitars from other guitar
shops? Here's armand Shawbrook. I don't know where we attitude, Like we
ended up with morals self morals, you know what I mean. Like if
I really found a wallet on the ground, it was no longer that kid
from at seventeen, I would try to find out whose it was, and
I wouldn't want to take it, you know what I mean. So you
think, like just good business practices, Yeah, and being fair all the
time. We were the first to discount instruments too, because we had low
upkeep in our early days and they wouldn't go down a diying back then the
other music stores. Yeah, and we would cut it, you know,
Oh, I could cut it in half. I could cut it forty percent
stomach fifty bucks. This is funny to me, but it almost feels like
your upbringing kind of where you didn't have a lot. Yeah, and then
I mean the house of guitars now right, you can find anywhere on the
internet with the annual income or whatever it is. But I think you've always
kept that mentality of I don't need a lot, I don't need and that
helped you kind of help the customer. We were actually happy, my brother
Bruce and my brother Blaine at times he'd be working at the store, but
we were actually happy when we were struggling in the early days, when we
were sleeping in stores and and h that's fun. And you know, and
if we sold the guitar, we would we wouldn't spend that money. If
I gave a couple lessons, I'd take maybe friends that are hanging out helping,
I take them across the street and buy him a cup of coffee and
a hamburger. We were spoiling ourselves, right, but only music, lesson
money. Never u something that came out of a sale. You know,
all that went right back, right back, kept building more and more product.
So this I mean slowly over the years when do you think it really
took off? Was it the eighties the nineties? Was it those TV commercials
you did when your eyes were blown and you're hopping around with the money ears
and oh by then we were exploding. Yeah, you were exploding me.
Those ads are iconic, and what I love about it is, and this
is the one thing I think for everybody that's so important is authenticity. Yeah.
You are who you are. You didn't never try to fit into anybody
else's mold. You were always just our Yeah. I haven an odd sense
of humor, Yeah, you know what I mean. But you know,
we like people. We love our customers. Yeah, a lot of them
are actually friends. They've been shopping here for almost sixty years, you know.
Yeah, so you know it's waiting on a buddy, you know.
But then you've gotten I mean to the point where I mean that wall back
there has you know, all the autograd autographs that people would be, you
know, just love to have themselves, you know, Stephen Tyler signing the
wall. You know. Ozzie was a big thing in here. Yeah,
he did three in stores once with Randy Rhodes and he came back with Mottley
Crue and we had Mottley Crue and Ozzie at the same time. Ozzie's sitting
here and Mottley Cruez in the Beck for the Beck autograph. All this,
you had the place out of the and then is Azzi's drumming. Carmen Peace
was upstairs teaching a master drum class, and police had barricades around all our
buildings. And I'm sure, yeah, how did so how did these connections
happen? Though? Like these guys walk in like they walk into a lot
of stores, I'm sure, yeah, but they keep coming back here.
Well, they were doing official in stores where they agreed to audit, okay,
and they pose with pictures with the fans if they want to. Yeah.
But I remember at one point in my radio career, I was around
the country station in town. I wasn't on that, but we were in
the same building in Ryl Croquet Buy and she shopped here, but she came
to shop here. She wasn't doing an in store. And that's what I'm
saying is like the reputation of what the guitars were, that it's got this
iconic everything about it is so authentic you're not going to find it anywhere else.
In her case, she was after kind of a rare guitar. It
wasn't old, but it was limited. It was a buck going signature metal
fender, okay, and she couldn't find it anywhere in the country and we
had one, so she come charging it. So she came in. But
she's very brilliant. She's pointing to all the guitars, the vintage ones.
Yeah, that's a fifty nine, that's a sixty two, Like do it
you know, really better than most of them. We got to look it
up in the book. Well we're pretty good at it. Yeah, But
I mean, but she knew her stuff. She knew her stuff. That's
impressive. Is there anybody that you you met along the way that sort of
uh disappointed you that you were you thought, maybe I'm a little disappointed.
I know, you're huge by the way, Bob Dylan fan. Have you
ever had Bob ever come to the store, Not that we know of,
because a lot of times he travels in an incognito. Yeah. Now,
I grew up down near Woodstock, so as a kid, I used to
I mean it was like I would hear stories of Dylan all the time,
and he wasn't there when I was growing up, but he had been there
and the band was still there Levon Helman all and I always got like as
a child, I was going here we go with another Bob Dylan story for
people that I always but the music was great. He was a great story
or is a great story writer? Yeah, I mean, is your favorite
He's one of my favorites. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, in terms of
I look up to him as a great writer. Yeah. And I got
to getting to like him. It takes a little while because he sounded a
little bit like a hillbilly in the beginning. I mean, you know,
not a not a pretty voice. But but his voice is effective, even
though we don't sing really well, but it's very effective. So his words
stand out when he does them, you know. But so many people were
having like top ten hits off. I'm like Peter Paul and Mary Exploded,
was blowing in the wind, and then you know the birds with tambourine man
and right, you know one one after Henrix with all along the Watchtower.
They're all Dylan written songs, you know. And a guy in Rochester.
This might be interesting. Spider John Kerner lived in a Rendequoit on Harvington drive.
But he was on Electra in the early days, kind of right before
Dylan, and he was in the Minnesota scene, and he was helping teach
Bob things and the guitar re or Bob hit New York. Wow. But
when Bob hit New York, he was crashing at everybody's apartments, you know.
I mean he was struggling and very close to the streets. He was.
You know, he's playing in place as well. Maybe this club will
feed me and let me sleep in the back, you know, you know
that kind of thing. I mean, he didn't. He didn't make it
with a instantly either. No. No, And I'm hearing you talk about
Dylan, but I'm thinking of yourself too, did you you never you said
you always knew you'd be successful with this. We thought we would be here,
yeah, but did you think he'd be here? We didn't know how
big it would go, but we had a lot of confidence. Yeah.
You just can't think otherwise, Yes, outside of here, because you seem
to have a lot of artistic talent. Think you do you do? There's
other things. There's painting, yes, correct, you do artwork and still
do art shows from time to time. Yeah, I did one in Brooklyn.
I think it was what three years ago, five years ago, I
have no concept at time at a good major gallery. And we showed up
for the the opening, like for three days we were there, but we
sold enough house of guitar shirts and everything to cover our trip, hotel and
everything and wow, but we got a lot of press on it. We
played telephone in the morning the day before like leaving, and we used to
get people on the phone, but now we just leave messages. My name
is Arman Shawbrook I'm an Exica and bah bah bah I got paintings in prison.
And I'll also be there with a Rikers Island guard who does photography and
we're having a show at you know. And that got them out. Yeah,
yeah, sure are coming and yeah this is great coverage. Someone told
me, well, I'll ask this first. Uh, certainly, when you
get to the level that you get, there are going to be rumors about
different things store or yourself. Yes, what is the weirdest rumor you ever
heard about yourself? Oh? I don't know so many of them really?
Yeah, yeah, I mean just things that you would look at people and
go where did that come from? I know, yeah, I would think
that it has to be. Did it bother you because you seem to be
a little bit more of a private person. Yeah, I'm quiet, yeah,
naturally, but I'm not shy though, But I know I am quiet,
but uh, I don't know, I don't know. Sometimes they come
up with something and they say they were with me. Yeah, yeah,
when did we do this? You have more friends than you knew, right,
I mean, yeah, the theories go wild. Yeah, that's got
to be. But I did hear probably scared the town some. Well,
where we're sitting was a grange hall, correct, Yeah, the farmers all
built the grangehall together, right, And then they used to sell their vegetables
out front and trucks back when we had subway tracks there and then that tita
is okay, but they'd sell sell their vegetables out of the truck and inside
here where we're sitting now, they used to have square dancing yea, and
different performers perform. Well. I grew up in a small town downstate.
We had a grange hall, right. There were usually small towns that had
that and a lot of farming and agricultural more or less. And then there
was and then the trying to think of what Oh, the Masons used to
have meetings on the second floor. Okay, yeah, and I'm not sure
what all that it's about, and it's kind of secret secret, but they
got little they had little platforms and we came in and we heard they sit
on chairs with goat legs and all these and something to do with the winds,
the four winds and yeah whatever. So did you ever find anything left
over when you moved in here. It's just like a lot of cabinets that
had the g in it. Yeah. And then those four platforms were there
still in place on the second floor. But a lot of presidents were Masons.
Yeah, I mean, it's that yeah, but they just looked out
for themselves kind of. And then someone from the Grange from years ago kept
an insurance policy and house of guitars at old eighteen under rates you know what
I mean. Oh really, And it wasn't a big one. It wasn't
enough to cover all our insurance, but they wanted to be part of it
though. It kept this policy going for quite a few years. That's funny.
Insane rates. Yeah, I mean twenty dollars a year. You know,
man, you're not gonna get that anywhere, know, I was told
that you were friends with Andy Warhol. Yes, Uh, he was interested.
I did a like how does that come about? I could see where
the two of you probably can, you know? Yeah, I got to
see way very well. Sure, but he's kind of like the underground Master
or something. Yeah, and he's used to dealing with unknowns rather than famous
people. So I recorded a play by the rock opera where we do a
little acting and it leads to a song and then we play it and then
we go on to our next scene. And I kept going for three records.
And at first, you know, he was going to be an Andy
warhow presents and so he heard he heard your rock opera? How did you
well? I sent it to him. I sent it to him. This
is kind of funny because I, I, uh called the Rondo Library and
Who's who? And he had him look up his address and his phone number
and everything was in there. It was modern day Google, right. I
called him on the bhone, but it was at his house. He lived
with his mother, he did, He lived with his mother, and uh,
and you called right to his house, right to his house, and
his mother's going and he and you get one of your friends are in the
phone and I got there and I said, well, my name is Armand
Shawbrook. I got in trouble as a kid, as a youthful of fender.
I'm not a convicted fella. I got a youthful fender status. Uh.
They offered us a y oh they call it. And you can plead
guilty to leading like a bad life. You're not pleading guilty did the crime,
then you don't have a record. I'm not a convicted fella. Good,
Yeah, you let me get me. It sounds the whole way out.
It's just such a technicalities. It's so silly. Yeah, it's a
plead deal. They didn't catch us at the scene and offered us a plea
deal. But then they gave us the worst they could give us. Kind
of Yeah, so you tell him this, yeah, And I got this
tape and then and then I sent out to him and he started going wild
and started calling our little store down the street here the back in the early
the middle sixties, and he said, please come to New York right away.
And you know, then we went to New York and he's talking to
play and everything, and he wanted us to sign up on an off Broadway
thing for where we would work seven days a week for over a year.
But the only thing is every it was just Bruce and me pretty much and
one employee, Bob Huber back then, and they were all in all in
the play, so we couldn't We didn't want to close house with guitarist because
that's our broad basket and the baby. So he wants you to come to
New York and do this. Yeah, she needs the guys here to keep
running it. Right, there's no one left to be Bruce and just one
other person. You know, our business was you. So he uh I
kept trying to talk him into a movie. It's backwards because usually you do
a play, then you send you sell movie rights and he sells soundtrack rights,
and you know, it goes like that. That's the best way to
get the most out of it. But I uh I was trying to switch
him. After a while, he started humoring, and finally he said,
I got a prison we could shoot it and you know, and it sounded
good because I could go there for a period of time and come back,
you know, But all of a sudden, uh oh. He even said,
I knew John Hammond from Colombia and he had a lot of interest to
in it. He he he's the guy that signed Bob Dylan and uh Springsteen
and Stevie ray Vaughn and somehow I had something to do with signing Billie Hollidays.
He signed Robert Johnson's son some house, you know. And so this
guy's interested now in your rock opera as well. Yeah, And I said,
Andy wants you to pay for the whole play for soundtrack. Right that
he started stuttering. I said, should I tell Andy know then? And
then he's a real nice guy. I mean, I don't mean to disrespect
him, he's a real nice guy. And he said, well, tell
mister worhow when it's ready, we'll come and see it. So it ended
like that. But then the girl came in and shot him and he almost
died. He was in the hospital for over a year and it was hit
fifty to fifty whether he'd live or die, you know. And yeah,
the girl also shot a Paris art dealer in the arm, you know.
And I knew Andy kind of helped her get a publishing deal, but she
hated man and her Men Manifesto or whatever you know, men manifesto, but
she wow, see those sell of them wrongly? Went her a little bit.
Sandy has helped there. Yeah, yeah, I don't think he was
even taking a cut. I think he just helped her and she charged in
and shot him plane blank in the chest three times and a Paris art dealer
in the arm. And Arman Shawbrook, what a wonderfully bizarre, incredible,
fascinating, interesting life he has led so far. He is the co founder
of the Great House of Guitars here in the great Rochester area. You can
hear more with Armin Shawbrook. Oh and by the way, that is internationally
known the Great House of Guitars. You can hear more with Armin Shawbrook in
episode two o five, appropriately titled Arman Shawbrook Coming up. A guy named
Dan Vinton who happened to be sitting on a plane flying home, but it
made an emergency landing in the Hutcheon and we have come to know that plane
and the pilot Sully as miracle on the h Hudson. Dan Vinten talks about
being on that plane and how things unfolded and how he remains close with some
of those passengers to this day. That's next, But first at Circum and
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us at five South Newark Street and felts Felt Cement Products Accident. Wait,
I need to wake you want to say goodbye, but the dawn is breaking.
Survey morn. The taxi's waiting. He's blown this morn already. I'm
so long so I could so kiss me and smile for me. Tell me
that you wait for me, Hold me like you'll never let me go.
Flyin on a jet plane, don't know that I'll be back again. John
Denver and Mama Cass Dude leaving on the jet plane. Denver was on a
jet plane that was headed home for him. He actually had wrapped up his
work early and there's meetings, and figured why wait around in cold New York
City in January when I get back to the Carolinas where it's a little bit
warmer. He was on the Miracle on the Hudson flight that pilot Sully successfully
landed emergency style in the Hudson. We've seen the movie and all that.
Dan Vinton is a Hilton High School graduate. He was in town earlier this
year for his Hilton High School reunion and he was doing a little speaking and
it's a very interesting story. Here is Dan Vinton. I asked him,
I kind of opened up. Did you see the movie? Here's Dan?
Yeah, Well I got to be in the movie. Oh you did ask
you? Yeah. So it was cool, as they Clint Eastwood when he
does his movies, he lets the actual people be in the movie. So
at the end of the movie they had a whole you know, a meeting
up with Selly and all the passengers just to kind of get the real people
in play. So that was a lot of fun. We had a great
time doing that. Wow, what was that? Like? You said,
Dan, don't try to f this up. Well it you know it,
it was pretty cool. I mean, you know, I didn't have to
be on this plane and I you know, of course not no one did.
And at one point, I mean when you said Brad's for impact,
it is one of those thoughts, like, shit, I could have been
on a but that later flight. Now I'm gonna die right, But ended
up being one of the coolest things in my life. Honestly, I've done
some really great things, so I'm going to take advantage of that. And
so when they were gonna did the movie, and the plane is actually in
Charlotte, so they had a fake reunion, which to us it was even
though it was, you know, a tape, we're still hugging each other
because we still want to, you know, It's like, it's not like
you know. So it was a lot of fun to do. Clint Eastwood
just does three takes and we all come running in and we're hugging and it's
just kind of what it is. And then we did a few other extra
things in front of the camera, and then they showed what they wanted to
show on the movie. Okay, and did you get to meet Clint at
all? I had dinner with Clint Eastwood. You had dinner with Cleon Eastwood.
Now, I was a huge Clin Eastwood fan, and I had to
take an acting class in college. I had to read a paper about somebody,
and I wrote it about Clint. And Clint at the time wasn't the
Clint that he is today. I mean we're talking early nineties, mostly in
front of the camera, not so much behind the camera. Right. And
then there's even movies I've loved, like everything. I even loved Bridges of
Madison County, Yeah, which I mean, is is a story, is
such a love story. But man, it's you. I mean at the
end, you just feel it. And he directed that right, and then
did this. And I even loved Trouble with the Curve, which I thought
was a little hokey, but it was, you know, and then any
any other I have a Grand Tarino. I mean you just think of that,
and I yeah, all this stuff and iconic when it comes to American
pop culture for sure. Yeah. I well, you know again, I
was blessed where it really. We just it was just like a regular see
them barbecue, right, you just stand in line, grab your food and
sit down. After we did some you know, makeup and wardrobe, which
was really nothing. And then we're going to do the shoot. But they
fed us, which is really nice. And but I'm thinking, O,
Clint's going to be in the back off, you know whatever, eating whatever
his dinner away from all this. Nope, he was in line and getting
his barbecue and he's looking at place for to sit. And I just happened
to be right across from me, and he sat right across from me,
and he was with the governor of North Carolina at the time. Politic conversation
was very interesting, but I'm sure it was. I'm sure it was.
Did he start talking to a chair and all right? Yeah, like he
did at the Republican But he's a interesting guy. Ninety three now is a
ninety and he's still making movies. He's working. He's on set right now
doing a movie. Yeah, what is it? He said? Don't I
just don't let the old man in? Right? Yeah? Yeah, except
that I did see him. And where did I see it? Ellen did
something where she went into his office. Yeah, and Clint stands up.
He puts out food. There's chipmunks that come in or something, or squirrels,
and he leaves it out for them to come up to his like into
his office and eat and then run away. And he stands up and he's
got the old man pants. They're up Valley button. Other than that,
there's really not much as an actor in a motion picture. Are you on
strike right now? Me? No, nothing to do. You know,
it's interesting. I mean, you know, again got to be a part
of the movie. They actually have to pay us, right, yeah,
because it's all union and so I'm like, of course I would have paid
to b in it, sure, but it was just kind of you know,
and then we're waiting around for our check or whatever, so it was
kind of it was they paid you on the spot. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, So I mean they knew it's just the one day's work. They
already already had our names written up with checks. So yeah, it's kind
of funny. So take me back to I mean, you're thinking you're going
to get home early, so this has got to be great. And I'm
sure you've talked about this at nauseum and sometimes I don't know, you know,
our memory can change some things along the way, but uh, do
you remember like even just sitting back and almost all right, I get home,
or maybe you know, that's usually where your thoughts are. They're not
sort of in that moment, they're in the when I land, I got
to X y Z, yeah exactly. So I mean I was like,
I again, I was lucky to get one of the last seats on that
flight. I'm going to go home and have dinner with my family, which
obviously did not happen, And but I did get settled in for like about
a minute and a half. That's about as long as as when we took
off until when the birds hit the plane. And of course there was no
settling and that was the most violent, terrifying anything that I ever felt in
my entire life. So you could actually feel the whole plane that rocked like
a bomb went off. I mean it literally just shook the plane violently.
It was like to take your worst turbulence if you've flown, and multiply by
a thousand. Wow. And you know, and I knew this, I
mean I was hoping that's what it was as turbulence, but you know,
you know better. And very shortly you can smell the smoke. Somebody's on
the engines on fire and we're not getting any word from the cockpit. Okay,
normally doesn't your pilot come on? Yeah, no word, So for
a whole minute, that fear might have been even more scary than when Selly
finally gives us some sort of you know, direction, because we're just waiting
for the plane to blow up. I mean, was that a bomb?
I mean it was at a missile. We're in New York. I mean,
isn't amazing how because if you could go back and see how long that
time really was. And I don't know if they even depict that in the
movie. I don't remember, yeah, if they if they did or not.
Do you know, do you remember if they depicted that time from the
time he spoke, the birds hit the engine and then he spoke. Yeah,
so the movie they did, I mean the movie you know, of
course I'm watching in the Eye of a Passenger. Yes, this movie isn't
about us, it's about Selly. So so depicting how what they did with
us was pretty mild compared to what we went through, because I'm thinking,
like that could have been forty five seconds, right, but damn this that
feel like a long time, well right, I mean it feels like a
long time. Yeah. So when the NTSB interviewed me the next day,
and you know, I was still in shock, and they know the answers.
I don't know why they even asked me, But how long was that
flight, mister Vint And I'm like, oh, you know, twenty minutes,
right, you know, when was the first responder come to you?
And I was like, that had to have been at least fifteen minutes,
you know, I mean you're like you said, you you know, things
slowed down, right, It's like and your brain just takes in more.
It's kind of weird, Yeah, what's going on because you're just you're just
this is just unique, I guess, right. So then so you think
you're I mean, your life's oh yeah, I mean so we have some
hope, you know, with not hearing nothing from the cockpit until about a
minute later when Captain Sully finally makes his announcement, what's the what are the
other pats? Sometimes? I mean we've seen I've been on planes where somebody
starts yelling like out of nowhere and it scares the shit out of you.
But in a moment like this where there was this rocky well, you don't
know if it's turbulence. Then you're smelling smoke someone seeing the engines on fire.
Are people making noise and getting excited and agitated or does everybody sort of
calm down and kind of go into that almost that oh shit mode? Probably
the second, Yeah, I think yeah. I mean I remember the woman
from you you could tear. She was just shaking and you can hear the
sobbing, but she was trying to keep it in, you know, And
I think all of us were just trying to figure out what was going on
and trying to mentally be prepared for whatever it is. There was a few
people just yelling, hey, what's going on? You know, we want
some instruction, But for the most of us, we were just like in
shock, waiting for Like I said, it is a plane just going to
blow up, and I'm gonna be dead at this moment. Right, Uh
wow, that's so then uh he says, brace for impact. Right,
You're in New York City, right, What was everythinking? Does that mean?
Does that mean we're about to hit the building and we're all dead?
Yeah? I mean for most of us, we did feel that was the
end. I mean, there's a few passions that felt maybe a little bit
more optimistic, you know, or they could even see that we're going to
land in the water. I couldn't even see we're going to land in the
water. So brace for impact, like you said, yeah, bracing in
you know nine to eleven you got those Yeah, sure, thought absolutely,
we're not what are we eight years past nine eleven at that point, right?
Yeah, exactly? So then he you you land on the river?
What what's going on? Then? Well, just the fact that I'm alive.
Yeah, I mean, it's that moment because you you know, when
you're about to have that moment of impact, that's when you just say to
yourself, you just shut off. You know, I'm done. You know,
I'm not going to be here anymore. But you know, you're bracing,
you're getting ready for whatever it is. You're still doing your own instinctual
thing. But then we glided along the Hudson River the way Selly had to
have the right degree angle for the airplane, and then we came down in
and that's, you know, when we stopped. That's the moment I you
know, I know, I mentioned, you know, I literally did the
pinch test. I'm like, you know, and I'm trying trying to not
see if this is a dream. I'm really dead. And I'm looking down
and everything was still there, and then all of a sudden, the cockpit
door opens up and Selly yells evacuate. So was that orderly? So?
And I say that because all our lives, you went to Hilton High School.
They had fire drills, they had bomb scares. I'm sure all this
stuffe in general, it's not it's not right but that. But in this
case you start to wonder, now, what are people thinking, Like all
of a sudden it becomes a I'm out for myself. Well, but I
don't know. Yeah, one thing we had going for us is we had
enough time because if we landed in the fuselage broken half, now we've only
got seconds and so now it is kind of you know, who can swim
to the open open you know, in the fuselage. But we had enough
time to kind of get out. And so for the most part, it
is pretty orderly. The only part where it wasn't orderly was in the back
of the plane because the nearest exit in the back was already submerged underwater.
But you're supposed to go to your nearest exit, So that's what's in the
back in your mind. So that my friends in the back were trying to
get out the back. They couldn't. Then they'd start to come up the
front, but there's still people coming in the back, and there's a log
jam. In the meantime, when the plane as great as Sully landed,
there was a big gash from Row twenty in the back and water's coming up
in the back of the plane. So I've talked to my friends back there
and they, you know, finally they're going to go to the front of
the pane, but at that point the water's almost up to their neck,
and they're like, shit, I just survived a plane crash, and I'm
going to drown to death. And I remember how cold is this water.
It's just below above freezing. It's about thirty two degrees, So you don't
have much time. I mean, hypothermia and other stuff will set in exactly.
So, even though I exited the plane, I remember looking back and
seeing that scene and people are climbing over the seats, and I'm thinking,
you know, I don't know if I'm going to survive. I hope I
do, but there's no way. So are you able in the time of
all this happening to get a text or anything off to your wife saying,
hey, this is what's going on, or so I don't just one of
those things where I had a flip phone back then, so so it you
know, just to turn it on was a project. But there were a
few passengers to your point, we're able to get message. Can you imagine
get a message from your loved one saying, you know, my plane is
crashing, I love you? And a few of them got out. One
passenger, I lean she was actually talking to her husband all the way down
and he was stuck in a car wash, and so she's given him a
play by play and then all of a sudden, shut up. Yeah,
oh god, he's in the car wash thinking my wife just died. Yeah
yeah, see, okay, this is where my head goes. I'm the
guy that has said many years, if like one of my loved ones dies
in the middle of the night, let's hope that they're at that age right
right, not not something that's unnatural, not a young person. But and
it's the middle of the night. Uh, And if I'm there, I'm
not calling my siblings until it's a decent hour. They're still gonna be dead
and nothing there I'm thinking. If I'm on this plane. I may with
all this chaos going on, I may just navigate through and if I get
out, I'll call you and go, pooh boy, do I have a
store for you? You know what I'm saying. I mean, And it
sounds like you didn't really have the choice because of the flip phone situation.
Thank god, you know. Yeah, I'm kind of with you on that,
I really am, because you know, I'm a big believer in you
can't burn calories and things you can't control, right, But you can't help
it when it's your husband and the father of your children that's calling you and
saying my plane just crashed in the Hudson. In the back of it's filling
up with water. Yeah, yeah, you're gonna be absolutely out of your
mind. So I don't know. I want to ask you a question though,
because you said friends in the back of the plane. Where those friends
prior to this flight or friends after this flight? After this? Yeah,
that's what I thought. We're very close. I thought, Yeah, that's
interesting. I wanted to ask you because think about all of us we've got
on a plane, and a lot of us will get off the plane a
bit about the person we had next to for the ninety minutes or three hours
or whatever it is on the plane. And yet an experience like this is
something that you nobody else can relate to. But the people that went through
it with you exactly, well, it's like you went to war with them,
and there's something special that really rarely anybody in this world has ever experienced.
And we got to our small group of people, so we have you
know, we're you know, we have some people involved with aviation, you
know, reaching out to other loved ones and family members or other planes where
maybe they weren't as successful or didn't you know, like the Buffalo flight for
example, that was I was horrible that it was shortly after our flight,
and so we as a group were just trying to figure out what we can
do to console the family members and in the day we felt like we shouldn't
do anything. Yeah, it was really sad. But one note on that
is Jeff Skiles, who's our co pilot. He goes to Buffalo every single
of the year because they have a memorial for all the family members in honor
for those and him and Sully you have been fighting tooth and nail to get
you know, pilots to get the right amount of training, because that was
pilot error. And if you think and if they had selly that day,
they'd'll be you know, they'll be alive. So this is a flood at
New York. I'm assuming this is a direct to Charlotte. There's all these
people that you're friends with. Now, are they all are from the Charlotte
area for the most part or you got people from connecting to other portions of
the country. Yeah, so it's a mixed bag. About one hundred people
from Charlotte. It was a Thursday afternoon flight, so it's a business flight.
A lot of people are going home for the week, and so it
was about one hundred of us, including myself, but there were some families
on there, and then of course there was Charlotte's hub. So they're connecting
throughout the country. So I kind of feel bad for them because when we
have gatherings in Charlotte, that's not you know, they can't make it,
or some will try, but it's a little bit more harder than just you
get my car and meeting up with some of my friends. So after this
experience, how hard was it to get back on a plane? Yeah,
I mean every thing outside of flying was just freaking awesome. You know,
I can't explain it. It's just every day got better and better. And
someone, you know, my passenger friends, they they have PTSD. Okay,
so that would totally make sense. Even you know, Selly claims to
have some, and so did Jeff. My wife's a nurse, so she
goes, once you get checked out, I'm like, well, let's let's
ride this thing and see how it is. And every day just got better.
I just I can't explain it. But except for flying. But back
then I flew a lot. Yeah, and so people asked me, when's
my first flight? And you could have paid me a million dollars to fly
home that night. And it's funny I mentioned my Joe Hart, a passenger.
He gets on the boat, picks up his phone and calls us Sarah,
and he goes, hey, you got a flight for me, you
know, And guy's got no nerve ending right, and so you I said,
They're like, well, Joe, we got a flight at seven thirty.
And he looks around in the boat. He's like, you know,
I don't think I'm gonna make the seven thirty because you got a later one.
And so he did, he went out, He went out, he
went out later that night, and so well, one of the odds of
it happening again. I'm kind of with him. I get, well,
I get I mean, I think we all handled it differently. And I
know pastors that have flown since since that's what I was paid for a flight.
Since have you paid for a flight since? Always? Yeah? Yeah,
I mean, yeah, that would be cool. If we could get
stuff they should give you, like lifetime. I mean, that's what I'm
saying. They should be lifetime. But uh, you say things got better
and better. It is one of those things where was it a clarifying moment
in terms of life? And I say that in terms of you just appreciate
things more. Maybe you see this as the gift that it's supposed to be
that, you know. I always say, I think our general purpose is
to be happy and to do what we love. Yeah, that's and we
all handled it differently. Sure we have different stories. How you have some
of my passionate friends. One quit his job and just travel the world,
you know, took off. Another one quit her job and adopted a boy.
I mean, things that would have never never done. My seat mate
went out and got his pilot's license. For God's sake. I don't blame
him, my family gonna. I'll trust myself. Yeah, I mean,
I'm sure he wouldn't have done that, you know. I mean for me,
I think I didn't do anything spectacular, but it definitely gives you much
better appreciation for life. And I think ultimately I still had a good general
feeling of life. But when you when you really have written yourself off and
now you're you're alive. I don't want to call a second chance of any
sort, but it really just makes you appreciate. Well, I'm saying,
like you came in here. You have two sons, you know, and
they look to be late teens, early twenties. Yeah, where they tell
them late teens. I love that now they're twenty five and twenty three.
I got twenty two and twenty one of mine, So I uh, just
that you sort of sort of appreciate them a little bit more. It's almost
like, what's the line in that it's almost a I guess a hokey song
in a way, but it's not. It's not such an imposition to go
fishing, right, That's the I lived like you were dying It's almost like
it's not an imposition to help the kid with homework now as maybe a to
have been on, you know, the following Monday, after the Thursday flight
home at two forty five, had nothing happened, right, you know what
I mean? And I think it's those things that you start to I don't
know, I'm asking, I don't know. I would think, well,
it's all about when it when you said brace for impact and I said goodbye,
What goes through your mind? Anything I did for myself my life gives
a shit. I'm dead, you know what, it doesn't matter. It's
not about me anymore. It's about my loved ones. And that's all I
thought about is my you know, my family, my friends, and I'm
not one. And it's really sad because I'm like, you know, I'm
no longer gonna hug my wife and kiss my boys, and that's sad.
And then then I just flipped it around and I'm thinking, Okay, well
I'm dead. They got to go on with their knowing their father died in
a plane crash. I mean, that's nothing they're gonna that's gonna be a
tough toll on them. One thing I did that was smart though, is
I'm not kidding. This is a true story. About three months before I
helped my life insurance. So I was pretty stoked about that decision. Yeah,
well, in that moment, I'm sure you would be. I was
thinking of I mean, those of the stuff I'm thinking about. I want
to, you know, take care of my family, but you know from
Afar. But yeah, so to your point, yeah, I mean my
appreciation in my family. That was really all all I am missed in love.
I have a friend who's a pilot, so he always says like he
goes. He says, first thing, Selly lamed the plane perfectly, because
if a wing dips into the end of the HUDs and you guys are gone
and the FAA is getting on him like, well, you could have brought
it back to the to the to the airport the run weeks. No,
I no, only couldn't know, there's no way. But he also says
that the co pilot never gets credit. He's the guy doing all the checklists
and everything else. You did you well, did you mention his name earlier?
Jeff Jeff styleish Okay, yeah, I was gonna say yeah, because
I forgot his name for the second. But like everybody's talking about Sally,
but the co pilot's just as important too, isn't he He is. And
here's one thing in Sully. Every time he goes out, he tries his
hardest to give Jeff equal billing. I mean, it really was a team
effort. The thing is America gravitated to one person. Sure for the most
part. Well, the name of the movie was Sully. He wrote a
book, and you know, and he fit the part. I mean,
look at the guy. You know, he's just this is the guy you
want flying your plane. And Jeff is equally a skilled and you know,
it just happened to be. Actually, Jeff was the lead pilot. I
don't know if you know that. He he was the guy that was leading
the flight. He was the and Sully was the co And the reason why
was is Jeff has actually got more flying hours than Sully, but he doesn't
have any airbus flight hours, so he's trying to build up some hours,
okay, And so we take off and all of a sudden, bambirds hit
strike and Sully just turns to Skiles and goes my plane, and then Skyles
goes your plane. I mean he handed it over because Saul, he's got
gallons of experience for that type of plane then styles, but that was supposed
to be his flight and he was the pilot and they just switched it over
because and again he had no problem with that. Yeah, what did you
do for work that was having you travel? Yeah? I was an audit,
so I traveled. But it wasn't it sounds exciting? Yeah it was.
It was The weird thing is like, but I traveled across the country.
That's what I mean is you, I knew you had traveled a lot,
So had you experienced other things on planes? Little turbulence, things that
you kind of went and this is sort of normal now? And well,
I mean there was one flight I flew into San Diego and they had the
San Diego fires as a lion in fact, I remember I had tickets to
see the chargers going in and they had him move to Arizona because the San
Diego is on fire, remember that. Yeah, And so we stopped off
in Arizona and we waited for like five hours on the tarmac. I'm like,
but they decided to send us in. And remember going down and it
was just pure yellow smoke and we're going and going, so we didn't know
how close we are to the bottom, and then all of a sudden,
we just shoot up in the sky. I'm like, whoa. I mean,
I mean, it's like, what did we miss? I mean,
yeah, yeah, And so I'm like, what was that? And now
we're scared because we can't see anything outside, you know, even when we
shoot up. And then they tried it again. We finally got down and
we were the last plane. I remember ashes coming from the sky was crazy
wow. And my uncle was a pilot for Delta and then was the head
of the union for them for a number of years. And my cousin is
a pilot and they're based out of Salt Lake. He lives in Park City,
but that's uh so he was always flying. My father used to I
think he was jealous, but he called him a glorified bus driver. Oh
yeah, how was the hotel for you when you got after everything all said
and done? Did you go to sleep that night or were you just up
all night? Just yeah, thanking everybody and thinking, well. When I
finally got to the hotel, I was actually by myself. I just kind
of ended up. I mean, we all scattered, we were rescued and
sent to San half Us in New York. I was in New Jersey,
I mean so and then finally I ended up at a hotel in New Jersey
and you know, I got to my room and I turned the TV on.
It's about midnight and I and I watched it for the first time,
like, oh, that was a bird strike. I mean, I didn't
know for sure. I didn't know the Captain sell you didn't to do with
it, you know. I heard some rumblings, but I was like I,
you know, and I'm watching the story like you had been probably all
watching it all day long, and it was the first time I got to
see it, and it was allowed me to calm down enough because I was
just a wreck, you know. But I was watching that and I called
my family. Sleep now maybe a couple hours, you know, but that's
when I decided the next day to fly home. So I had to go
home and see my family right away. Yeah, so you did get on
a plane again the next day. Yeah. Was there a little apprehension to
that at all or just it? Well, what it is? The night
before I wasn't going I was driving. But then you know, you just
kind of think through it a bit. It's like it is safe for to
fly, you know, I drive, you know, twelve hours. I
got a better chance of dying doing that than fall asleep exactly after something like
this, which is already so taxing on you. Yeah, and I had
I had to get home to see these guys, you know. So yeah,
and but it was the most upsetting flight. I we took off and
I literally I just started balling my eyes out. I mean, it was
the weirdest thing. It just came out of nowhere because all the emotions came
back. Luckily, luckily they I think the people knew who I was.
I remember walking on the plane. They probably made an announcement because I was
still wearing the clothes the day before and they're looking at who's this, you
know guy coming in. But they probably mentioned who I was because nobody really
reacted to me crying, because you can't imagine if I'm to suit the next
my first business trip back and I start bawling in my eyes out, there
would be like that. I would think I would think somebody, I would
think somebody died. Well, that that's what I would think. Like I
would feel terrible, poor guy. Do you remember when when it happened.
I'm taking a nap. You called me in the middle of the day,
Danny build, it's up. Turn. I got one of these guys on
what are these guys on for? What? It was? A plane just
land in the Hudson I go, a plane landed in the huts. So
I get this guy named Jeff kloj. Does that name ring a bell?
Absolutely? Jeff. Yeah. So he gets out and he goes, I'm
no hero, I'm no hero. He was like from New York and stuff.
He's on a business trip. Okay, yeah they were. I think
No, I think they're on a golf trip. I think that's what it
was. Ok Yeah, yeah, him and they all were separated in different
areas of the plane. So one half we're here and the other half we're
here, and they're thinking, ohly God, are they alive? You know,
whole experience. But yeah, I know, Jeff, any nightmares of
that or I don't know if there would be nightmare, but any dreams that
have come, you know, I mean there's subconsciousness strides a mystery, right.
I was. Actually it was more of day dreaming, you know,
during during the day, I'm trying to work and then my brain would just
take off for half an hour because of what I went through. So at
night, I mean, for the first week was kind of hard, but
then I got into it. It was more of the daydreaming. It was
very difficult to work almost that entire year because it's just really and that's would
you label that as PTSD? I don't think so, No, I don't
know. It was just good thoughts. I mean, it's like there was,
okay, there's like a minute and a half of fear that I went
through, but the rest of the whole time around it has been, you
know, fantastic. So I can't explain it. But the daydream was just
thinking through it again, and I don't know, it was it's all right,
yeah, you're still doing audits. No, no, So now I
manage money. I'm a wealth management of there you go. Yes, now
we're talking. Yeah, sure, and that's in Charlotte. That's in Charlotte.
Yeah, okay. Oh man, I think it's uh something to live
through for sure. I mean, you must tell this story everywhere you go.
Yeah, I mean, it's been fourteen years, so it's it's kind
of it died on But but then again, it's It's just one of those
things like you know, who is who do you know has been in a
plane crash to that element, you know, And so I would be interested.
I'd want to know more. And here I understand, you know,
anybody that's kind of event that you know, where everybody stopped where they were
and watched it on TV. You know, I'd be interested to talk to
those folks that were involved with that. So but yeah, I do tell
it a lot. And everybody got out and was there anybody who was elderly
or some people? I mean sometimes you know on a flight you may have
somebody with a walker or something. Yeah, I mean Lucille Palmer, she
was eighty five, she came out on the walker. It's kind of like
you fed this story right for me. So that was I didn't know.
I'm just thinking to myself, I'm going, well, you know, you
have a cross section of society on these planes of every ability and every everything,
and something like that happens. I was almost gonna say, I think
you start to see people's true nature sort of come out at times, those
who are just panicked and scared and others who kind of a little more calm
and maybe leaders who step up and help guide things. And then I'm thinking
you may have people like you know, my mother who's in her mid seventies
and walks with a limp, right, and it isn't gonna be able to
hustle on a a nisle to get out. Yeah, well, let's see
how she, Like you said, she came out in a walker with her
She came out with her daughter. We crash. She turns to her daughter
and says, just leave me here. She just let me die here.
I mean, I'm in your way. I mean I'm just gonna be in
everybody's way. And she's like, no, Ma, you're coming with us
and her and other passengers. This is where I you know, what we
did to all help each other. That that's I mean, that's the human
spirit. That's the That's what I thought I was hoping would happen within something
like that. And I could totally see my old man saying just that.
Yeah, I'm a wait, I'm dead weight. I've lived, get out
exactly, I believe me, I've lived, and and not even being I
don't know what the word would be, a martyr, a hero, I
don't know, just saying like and in a way a lot of times Big
Jordan and Jackson do Paul Bill, we got you two guys, and then
you hear those stories of superhuman strengths. Then they're on the Good Morning America.
Jackson can just think a bunch of people here. The entire conversation with
Dan Fitten in episode one fifty nine titled Fake Priest and Miracle on the Hudson
coming up my younger brother, who is kind of a hero to me.
We call this episode the most Interesting Moran. We'll get to that, but
first, Leo's has to go food perfect for quick and easy meals to go
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can do that with Toronto Dental at four four two nineteen hundred and online at
Toronto Dental dot com. Better days already the cards. I've been feel it
in the change and with I feel it when ipp lie, so talk to
me. I'll listen to your story. I men around enough the door but
there's all that meets the eyes. Everybody needs a little bit enough charm,
a little great Greek keeps you said from Hardy. We're gonna tell me,
don't remind on you, kiness, come along the avenue you feel Goodbye the
late Jimmy Buffett. That is my brother and his wife Morgan's wedding song,
A little love and luck, and mister love and luck is how my brother
has lived his life. And it's as his older brother by eight years to
watch. It has been fascinating and interesting. And I'm not I know when
people go, ah, you're jealous or you're envious. No, I'm impressed,
truly impressed. And my brother has struck a chord between serious. He
has a very serious job with people who trust him with their investments. He's
an economic forecaster for big hotels and things resorts. But that is pretty serious,
right, a lot of pressure, and yet he went to clown college
all his life. He's done. He's just he is the most fun.
He is the most fun and at times the most serious. So for episode
one one most interesting Moran two, it's my brother and his wife Morgan.
So hold on because like listen, I go to these meetings too, and
I've got like brownies and gray rabbits are gray hairs. I'm whipping out all
these little things out of my pocket. Out of these guys, I've I've
shot chickens out of before. You've got the owners, right, guys,
because you have to keep they they have to buy into you, yes,
and so so I always realize you have to have a little bit of humor
with anyone. Yeah, so they can feel and they can feel like human
element to the point where you've taken me to a U haul storage facility to
meet former old clowns a deal they were they were having, they were retiring,
they were selling their equipment, and you said, I need some of
these things for some of my meetings. And we had to show up in
Maine two a m here. Yeah, wait, so you you pull these
clown tricks? Oh yes, whatever all that. When I remember I'm in
a meeting, I'm loaded. I've got some kind of clown ship in one
of my pockets. Like, oh yeah about I mean, I've had like
the owners of you know, is it to break the torea? You know?
And and what I've learned again, you know, it's everything psychology to
some extent. But they need, as I was trying to say before,
they need to see that human element. They need it, right because you
can deal with you know, people just talking numbers all day. You'll be
out your fucking mind because they're boring a ship. But you know you have
to you have to be able to breathe into the numbers. And that's and
that's kind of what what that does. I can helps break it up.
So that's, you know, just something I've learned over the years. But
yeah, so Cornell, right, so there was that well we yeah,
let's go back. But Cornell loved it. Yeah, I loved it there.
I loved the school. I really liked the labor relations school was a
small, intimate group. But what was so different is that I learned there
that there was a world of people and a lifestyle that I had never seen
before. Yeah. You know, you had kids that you know, went
to boarding schools and they were they were they were raised to go to a
school better than Cornell, and they just didn't get in. And you know,
they they had privilege, losing out of every pore. And I just
remember being like, holy shit, this is kind of funny. Yeah,
because I didn't you know, and I don't mean it that way, but
like I didn't, I did well, we didn't even understand it. These
were Hampton's and flying off to Europe people. Yeah, these are you know,
it's the Cores families, the Johnson and Johnson family. You know,
there's a lot like that, you know, legacy families that were there,
you know, five generations that went to the same school, you know.
And and it was cool because you know, two ways you can look at
it was like, oh my god, I don't belong here, Like,
holy shit, this is really cool. Yeah, I'm here with these people.
We're all kind of going after the same thing. And I think for
me going into it a couple of years later, right, I think it
was like twenty one when I finally got there, it was beneficial, you
know. And and then I had some buddies and some guys that lived on
my floor that you know, had done the Navy for a couple of years
and like they pretty much dropped out of high school to the Navy Community College
and then wound up at at Cornell. One of my good buddies he went
on to law school and he got into Harvard and he had too the university
of Chicago. It was a great law school. Yeah, some of the
best in the country, right, both of them, and he and he's
like, yeah, I got more money. I think, he's I got
more money to go to Harvard. He's like, but they're just too pretentious.
So he's like, I don't want to fucking go there. So it
was the University Chicago another ones which is like the Ivy League of the world
and didn't last, right, And so it was neat. Right, You're
dealing with people like of all different shapes and sizes, especially the ones that
transferred in because at the time they had a dorm, the transfer dorm,
right, so it was all and it was probably two hundred three d kids,
but they were all the ones that transferred in, so you had a
lot of different experiences which made it. Yeah. So after Cornell, you
get a job in New York City. So another great thing that the school
like that does is a blue sunshine up your ass. And they did a
really nice job, right, So I assumed i'd, you know, i'd
graduate and I get this job in New York and I'd be living in some
really nice apartment on the Upper East Side, And I think the best thing
that happened to me is I wound up getting a job at the Mayor's Office
labor relations. Yeah, so that was doing what for New York City.
It was a labor analyst for the Mayor's office. And what they did was
that they represented the city in all the contracts. Yeah, it be the
teacher, sanitation, all these So what was so cool is a lot of
the classes I was taking at Cornell, Yeah, these professors and they'd be
expert witnesses, and they are oftentimes expert witnesses for the unions. So I
remember once it was I think we're doing yeah, we're doing the police arbitration
because they could never get to a contract and the contracts are sold. But
it was really neat, right, It was a really cool experience to take
what I learned move forward, get a job in the heaviest union city in
the world, right in New York. And you know, I was making
thirty two thousand dollars living in a fucking basement in Queens for a year,
paying six hundred and fift dollars cash. But what was really cool aside from
that was you know, you're a part of this. You know, you
were seeing how this stuff works, right, so you know you'd be in
these law offices because you know, again it would be these high, high
end labor firms that were hired. You're at Madison Avenue, You're a part
of this. It's like, this is amazing. And I remember once I
was in the bathroom and after around, I'm like, hey, Professor Katz,
like a professor I had. He was there too, and he was
an expert witness, okay or the police, you know, so it was
really really cool. You know. I remember once sneaking into the U into
our breakout rooms because you know, they're all catering all the stuffs. I
walk in and I went to the bathroom, just dicking around, and then
oh, cookies are out. So I'm like eating cookies and I'm shoving a
cookie in my mouth and these guys start walking into the room and they're all
in suits and they're talking to their arms clear clear, and they're like,
hey, how are you. I'm like hey, I'm good. And then
Bloomberg walks in and Bloomberg I'm like hey, He's like hi. I'm like
Bloomberg, I'm like good, I no, I worked for you, Like
the cookies and looking really good but you know that it was cool. You
know, it was just times like that. You know, it was a
great job. And I think, you know, I realized at the time,
I didn't want to be a lawyer. I didn't want to work for
the mayor's office forever. You know, it didn't pay well. I was
frustrated with a few things at the time, so I made a bet with
the body, is like, I'm just gonna quit. What are you gonna
do? Buy a bicycle right across the country. No you're not, No,
I am. So I wanted to buying a bike. Okay, So
how did that happen? Because I thought there was and maybe again I'm conflating
stories to something, but I thought there was a guy that they brought out
a cake that was celebrating thirty years working there, and you went, there's
no fucking way I can do this. Yeah, I think I think that
was part. Yeah, I mean there was that, right. You have
the guys like you did forty years in the city and they just you know,
they look like they were dust. Yeah, right, And I realized,
I'm like, this is not what I want. This is not and
and anything I did from there, I really so I et there, I
had to go back to school. I didn't really want to be a lawyer.
You know. I was doing the calculations at the time, like I'll
be twenty seven, we'll be so old and all this. Suff sure it
makes sense right now, it doesn't look like but you're forty three and it
doesn't matter how old you were. Yes, but again, time has a
different meaning, you know, at every stage of life. But yeah,
so I you know, I just decided, like I hate where I live,
you know, I don't like my job, I don't like all these
other situations, and just said I'm gonna quit. I'm gonna I'm gonna pull
myself out of this. And that's when I bought a bicycle. You did,
and did he did do this? Yeah, and you went out to
Seattle. Well, here's this is you bought the bicycle in Seattle. I
didn't here. Oh, so here's here's the funny part of the story.
So March and Bill came down. I think it's your birth Remember you came
down. Oh yeah, yeah, so my buddy Jason. Yeah, but
so I worked with my buddy Jason, and so he's like, oh,
yeah, I want to meet your parents. So we went out and we
had a couple of drinks at a bar and then we wound up in the
village. March has three or four margites, and then we wound up in
Central Park at a concert and just few kids. It was it was like,
well, the used green alcohol, so it wasn't Yeah, it wasn't
good on that. But so that was the day I told my boss and
I'm quitting. Now you told him earlier in the day. Yeah, I
told him that day. Did you tell March and Bill that he wold quit?
Yeah? They knew, okay, because I think I had already bought
the bike by then, and you know I was talking to like the bike
shop back you know here, Yeah, yeah, yeah, and or the
Pleasant Valley Bike Pleasant Valley Bike Shop, which was funny because the guy I
got a discount there because the guy's daughter I got to the isl R school
too. He's like, I'll give you fifteen percent off. You knew my
daughter this. I bought all the ship and you know I got fifteen percent
off, which is what I needed. But yeah, so the whole so
I I quit that day, or told him I was quitting, and I
came, I would come here on the weekends and I'd ride the bike and
I rode it twice, like thirty miles. And then here's the funny thing,
And I thought about today because we went to Pete's famous diner. Right.
Yeah. So we're at Pete's and I see this bike and it's all
decked out. It's got all the gear for somebody who's riding across country.
And I see this guy. It's like, hey, I'm like, oh
my gosh, I'm about to do this now. It's mid July. Yeah,
people start this thing in med Yeah they do, right, so that
the weather's yeah, pretty good everywhere. Yeah, but weather's good, you
get some time. So talking to this guy and I was like, yeah,
actually I'm about to fly out next week. And he's liked, you're
never gonna make it. He's like, it's you're you're never gonna make it.
You haven't trained, you haven't done anything. You're like, oh my
god. This guy's a total dick. And I was like, oh man,
and he was like eating. He's like, I'm like, where are
you going next? I'm gona ride my way up to Boston. And then
he's like I started down in California and I rode up. Yeah, he
rode up from like the border in San Diego all the way up and then
came across the country and did all this other stuff. And he's like,
you're never gonna make You're gonna run out of time, it's not gonna work.
I'm like, this guy's a dick. Yeah. So I wound up
buying a getting the bike, flew out to my buddy's house and Seattle and
just started riding. And I decided, I'm like, well, if I
can get you know, if I can go three days, right, just
keep going. And the advice I was given us, ride as far as
you can the first day. Second day, ride as far as you can.
Third day, you're gonna be in so much pain. Keep riding as
far as you can that day, and then by the fourth day you're cana
feel okay. And I just kept doing it. So I rode across the
country. So no real training for this trip, just the desire to change
a flat tire on the bike when I started, Just the desire to do
it. Nothing else going on. Yeah, just quit my job, I
know. But yeah, and to take me back because I have the same
parents you have now, I certainly did whatever I wanted pretty much. But
that would be a scary thing when you had a job, you had benefits,
you had graduated college, and as parents, you kind of go,
Okay, the last one's kind of settled here, and then it's never settled.
No. But I'm just saying, but like to quit your job and
then you go as you're saying, I got nothing going on, and you're
going out there. When did you fly out? Well? I thought I
thought you went August. Was it July? It was like I might have
fallen out the end of July and I started August fourth, Okay, yeah,
I remember it was August September and you came home. You were back
by October, October sixth I finished. Yeah, I rode forty five hundred
miles. Yeah, so you go back though that. So that trip,
that fourth that third day, how bad was it? It was bad?
I mean, but it was manageable, right. I mean, you know
you're sore. You know, they're like, yeah, your ass is gonna
be sore. And it was. But you know, after that you just
started to get it together. And the way I worked it was I turned
it every day like I was at work. You know, you get up
in the morning, you get a friend six thirty. You know, I
had a tent, Like at first, I didn't even have the camping situation
figured out, Like I'm staying. I'm like, I'm gonna burn out of
all the money I have, right I stay in hotel. So I'm like,
it's kind of weird because once you're west of the Mississippi, you can
camp anywhere nobody cares, like Blm Lands. You can do whatever you want.
Really, yeah, you get east of the Mississippi, it's a whole
different world. Yeah, in terms of you know, regulation, camping,
regulations all yeah. Money. So yeah, So could I bring it a
little full circle for a minute. Sure? So Nick, you flew out
to Seattle, Yeah, when you were starting this trip, and you stayed
with your friend Nick, who went grew up with here and who you started
flying with. Well, he was the one that flew in the well so
here, Yeah you could, Yes, you could do the full circle thing.
And I think there Nick and I flew it was the field trip.
We wound up in the biplane. Because his mother was a chaperone, March
was a chaperone. Nick was a fat kid, so I was able to
kind of snug in the seat next to him, So I felt safe,
okay, And Nick's always been yeah, yeah, yeah, but he's always
been like so, you know, Nick and I have always had that relationship,
right, We've been very close over the years. But yeah, so
anyway, so I'm riding across the country and again, as you're riding,
this is like pre Facebook, this is the iPhone. My phone would be
out for like four or five days because I'm in the mountains march. But
yeah, it's a ship. But now, like I mean, I even
me, I'm like, I've got my watch, I've got this, I've
got air tags, my wallet, you know all that stuff. But so
I'm riding across the country and you know, you stop at a diner and
you sign your name and all this stuff. Well, I made it.
I made it my job. Do you go across the country going on what
a total dick that guy that I met and Ryan Beck was. So that
was almost a motivating factor for you. No, it was just for me.
That was a sport. No, that was not a motivating okay,
no, no, no, What I meant was a motivating factor to finish
well No, no, no, no, okay. The motivating factor to
finish this because I started. I had nothing to do with that. Okay,
you know, I wasn't gonna end it. But it was just I
just remember people like, oh, yeah, there was this guy and who
started. I'm like, he's a total asshole. I remember like being in
a couple of bars, like you know it was an asshole. Oh he
was amazing. I'm like, yeah, I heard he was a dick.
And then so I just went through and in some places I would write next
to him, asshole. Did you know the guy's name? And you would
see where so I knew, so you could figure out what his name was.
I was able to check logs like and again it's all like it's almost
like you know, colonial dimes, right, people wrote their names and stuff
so you could see all this. So yeah, I went across. So
okay, that had to be maybe the best thing you ever did. It's
it's up there. I mean, it's an experience. Yeah, but I
had to have some really challenging days. It was. Yeah, I think
there had to be weather issues and you had everything you had weather, you
know, and I think at the end of, you know, the trip,
what I realized and throughout the trip, it's like you could get angry,
you get frustrated, right, and you can just start banging. It's
not gonna fix anything. So through that, it really taught me a problem
solving. Right now, you get through it, you know, you go
to stay calming and do stuff. But overall, no, I think,
you know it was it was a good trip. It made sense, and
then I wound up back home with margin Bill pennyless. But I also knew,
you know, I was never a great math student, right, you
know, numbers whatever, And I also knew the majority of people are afraid
of numbers as well. And my biggest thing was I needed to get a
degree. Whatever I was going to do next, I needed a degree,
a master's or something of that sort. So that's when I went to Albany
and got a master's in economics. Because the whole thought to me was,
let me learn how to explain numbers and then I can interpret them. Nobody's
ever going to tell me, you know what I mean, I need to
be the one because people are really afraid of them. And I was never
listened. I'm never going to be deep into analytics. I'm never going to
be your PhD guy. I knew it was, you know, I'm not
going to get into all this theorem shit, but I needed to be comfortable
enough to explain it. And that's where I decided, Hey, let me
get a master's in economics. And I went to Aubany because it was a
year long program and I was paying for it, right, So I wound
up there and it was hard. It was a hard, hard program.
You know. I was twenty eight, I think twenty seven, twenty eight
at the time, six twenty seven when I started, and you know,
I would sign up. I had tutors, I did everything I could.
I was meeting with people. I was meeting with professors all the time,
just so they knew that I was in it, right. That was the
biggest thing. And the chair of the department. I remember talking to him
once and because he was like, oh, you went to Cornell, you'll
be fine, you'll get through this. I'm like, I'm not one of
those kind of smart Cornell kids. You'll be fine, You'll be fine.
And they had this program where it was the forecasting program, so it's like
a slightly higher, a little more advanced, and you're supposed to do all
the shit to get into it. He's like, don't wry about I'm gonna
sign off on it. You'll get it, and you're fine. So you
signed me off on this program. So now I'm sweating because now I gonna
do even more. But that's what you do now, But I yeah,
and I do it. But like, believe me, when you're learning the
stop, the theorems and all that shit, it's a whole different world from
what I do on a day to day basis. But yeah, So I
did that program and then when I finished, I'm talking to the guy.
I'm like, what am I to do with this degreat? Like where the
hell am I going to work? And I was working in a running store.
Yeah, and I was interning out the state and he's like, oh
yeah, all these companies are hiring, and this is like February. He's
like, listens, like Disney has like an economics department. You know you
should. He's like, I got a friend whose wife works there, and
his friend taught an RPI. I was like, all right, So I
met her once like a air bread and just talked to her. That was
it. I wasn't looking for a job. It was February and then June's
like, hey, are you still looking for a job, like, yeah,
I'm waiting to hear back from the state because I had applied for a
job there where it's interning. Got sender me your resume again, wound up
having a phone interview, and then wound up They're like, hey, we
want to fly you down. It's all right, and I lived. To
keep in mind, I lived in Auburny. I don't know if you had
been to that apartment. I was fucking great. It was great. It
was on the third floors. This sketchy building looked like the stairs are going
to fall off, but then you got up to the floor and it was
perfect. It was amazing walk down the stairs. I mean you were like
everything. Yeah, the bars were there. I mean you walked down to
the Capitol and catch all the concerts. It was really, really cool.
It's a great place. And I remember Dad helping me get in the furniture
up. I'm never moving this down. Cool look getting out of here.
So I was like all right. So Disney is like, yeah, they
they hired me, right, and they're like here's you know, we're gonna
reload you, all right. What's that mean? Like, well, we're
gonna pay a ten k to take the job, and we're gonna take all
your ship, including your car, and ship it down and fly you down.
All right. I couldn't say no to that. And you're just gonna
stay on for a year. I'm like all right, So I'm like,
great, I'll stay for a year. So they moved everything. I mean,
I had dirty clothes, dirty dishes. They wound up in boxes,
wound up. Wait, they packed everything. They had packers and movers come.
They a car, a truck came and picked up Helen's car. That's
fancy and oh yeah, and like they fly dead grandma stuff at a lot
of dead grandma stuff, a lot of ship and all got shipped to Florida.
So now where does it go in Florida? Did they set you up
with the place? Well, they flew me down to like properly, Like
yeah, so it makes it now I can see it like if I was
like, you know this stage in my career, like yeah, you need
to fly, you gotta figure out schools, you figure all that. I
didn't give a ship Like I'm like fine, And you know, I remember
talking like the agent. They had one crooked HR guy dealing with that Disney
and he's like dude, you need to move downtown. He's like, all
the flight attendants are down. You have so much fun and anyway, so
they had somebody showed me around all these apartments, and I wound up moving
like not downtown but in this area like yeah, not too far from Disney.
But didn't you launch your kayak in the pool? Oh? Yeah?
So the ki they took, all that ship was delivered, everything, everything
wound up in and all that was hell and ship. Yeah. And then
they gave me like ten thousand dollars just to like set up. And then
there was all kinds like all the money like it was nuts, like and
and again I had no idea because if I in retrospect, I should have
done some other things like pay off my stodent loan, right oway yea.
So it was fun and you know, it was like handy Land, and
you know, I'm hanging out and doing all kinds of dumb stuff and yeah,
yeah it was good. And you worked at Disney yep. So I
got a job and was doing revenue revenue management, which is economics for the
hotels, okay, and then that got me kind of moving ahead. Yeah
all right, and then you and you met Morgan. Yeah, so ye
wound up dating somebody for a little bit. Na, oh I think I
remember. Yeah, t Bex was a little older, so that's why we
named her t Bax like t Rex. And then we were going through a
breakup and I moved, like all kinds of stuff. But then you know,
uh, Morgan, I had a mutual friend at the time, like,
oh, I'm going out to you Knowcot. Yeah, everyone hung out.
Yeah, everyone hung out at Epcot and all kinds of ship like your
Disney money. You just spent the back and place. And she's like,
yeah, you should come, that's great, And it was Morgan's Paraday,
so what kind of matter. It's kind of cute. And then I'm screaming
on the phone with the other one as trying to get rid of her and
dumb ship. But I realized that Morgan, you know, from an economic
perspective, was the best package because she had who breaks it down like this,
she just had her birthday. Oh yeah, I know you you're clean
for a year, clean and give your you're rolling sixty days into the holidays.
You didn't have to do any holiday ship because nobody wants to like meet
somebody like you're not meeting family the right. Yeah, and that was kind
of how it all started the spring. There's a little more to it,
but sure. Yeah. So mars Is March comes down and we're both playing
a different softball teams and we're at ESPN, rolled out of sports doing her
softball thing, and she's a girl like that one over there. We're not
going socks. Did you sell your mother? And then March it's waving to
me while I'm in my little cute conversion. So I said, I said,
you, my son, you really looked at I'm not concerned that I
didn't. I did, and I was the like I called the promiscuous one.
So then so then I said, there's biscuous one, Billy. So
so hold on, here's the thing. So then I told marsh we can
get back at her. And she's like, what do you mean? It's
like you say to her. So I heard you've been in my house because
we went because because Morgan flew up and we met up with my buddy Jason,
and we all went white water around here in Riebeck. But hold on,
we went to the Ironics, but we caught up at the house and
then we all drove up together were Martin, Bill, you were somewhere.
I think you guys are living in Maybe Yeah, you were. I don't
know you were somewhere. You were there because I told you that I was
going to any of my buddy's gonna stay at the house for a night.
So that I said, Hey, tell her that I heard you been in
my house. Did she yeah, March did she said to you? Yeah?
What is that like? Then I sat back and left. Here it
all with my younger brother in episode one twenty one, the most Interesting Moran
two for Greg Connors, Armin Shawbrook, Dan Vinton and my younger bro I'm
Bill Moran. We'll see you next time with an original episode. Yeah,
baby, I woke up in hotel, didn't know what to do. I
turn a TV on, rute a letter to you and a stout didn't by
to dad upon the unastate seems they were looking for a kind of light with
Tennessee Eve please